Aftereffects
by EvoFTG
Summary: Astrotrain should know better than to stick his nose where it doesn't belong, especially where Megatron and Starscream are concerned. Old one-shot, G1 cartoon universe. Set after the events of No Longer Mine but can be read separately.


_**A/n:** For _tiedwithribbons, thank you for the support. Old one-shot set after No Longer Mine.

* * *

"Lord Megatron!"

The high-pitched shriek reverberated through the hallways and all the way to the Command Deck. Nobody in the Nemesis doubted who was that caller – there was no Decepticon who could have managed the shrill whine even if they tried – but all who listened was frozen stiff by fear and curiousity as Starscream stomped into the Command Deck, fuming and positively close to panicking. Rumble, who was manning the control panel, and Blitzwing, who was currently tasked to surveillance duty, whirled around in tandem, their optics following Starscream's every step to the base of the throne.

Megatron, on the other servo, merely raised an optical ridge at the Seeker's clumsy entrance. His digits tapping quietly on the Fusion Cannon, currently detached from his arm-strut and leaning against his throne, were drummed to the beats of his thought processes whether or not his SIC deserved a warning blast. As ruthless as the warlord was, Megatron discarded the notion – though it was still mightily appealing – since he was himself curious as to the jet-former's seeming panic.

Reaching the base of the stairs leading up to Megatron's seat, Starscream gave a quick glance to the Decepticons present as if he was just becoming aware of Rumble and Blitzwing. He barked irritably, "Will you two buffoons get out of here?!"

 _Hmm._ The Fusion Cannon might be useful for disciplining after all.

Both Rumble and Blitzwing vacated their posts as if they were chased with a whip cracked on their heels. Starscream was potentially funny if his voice was coupled with a serious demeanour but no one was quite willing to deal with a cantankerous Seeker, fearing crafty rebuke when they were least expecting it. In a couple of nanokliks, Megatron found himself alone with his Air Commander who seemed to have regained his earlier alarm once he had dismissed his comrades.

To Megatron's surprise, the famous-for-contingency-planning-plus-backstabbing-disorder fell into a swift kneeling. It was so low, in fact, that he might have been prostrating at Megatron's pedes.

"What is the meaning of this?" Megatron blurted before his processors could stop the unrefined question.

"My lord! I – Why – You…!" He choked, cycled an emergency intake and tried again, "Lord Megatron, why did you spread such rumours about me?"

The silver mech had a nanosecond to comprehend that being called sincerely with the honorific meant that the Seeker was truly desperate for his…mercy? And the matter with these 'rumours' were piquing more interest than he would admit.

"Starscream, if you are going to say something, say it properly." Inwardly, Megatron was chuckling and revelling in the sight of his normally rebellious SIC in complete subservience before him. Not to mention, being on his knee-struts was decidedly a _gorgeous_ posture for the Seeker to adopt, accentuating his wings as the leading edges caught the lighting overhead and reflected a mesmerizing shine.

Starscream dared to risk a slight lifting of his helm so as to lock his gaze with his leader. Megatron was again startled to see the amount of desperation reflected within those ruby-red lenses, equally beautiful to his position at Megatron's pedes. "My lord Megatron, why did you spread the news? It…It was supposed to be between us only!"

"For Primus' sake, Starscream, what are you talking about?" Megatron was impatient. His Fusion Cannon was severely tempting, as were his fists, but this Starscream was one of those when he was honestly, truly scared for his being.

What puzzled the Decepticon Supreme Commander was that he had not done anything to have caused the reactions in the jet-former, as far as he could recall.

"The NEWS!" Starscream was all but shrieking, though quickly dropped his tone to a whisper, "Why did you informed the others that we…we have…"

Starscream choked on the last word and spat it out in a hurry: "… _Interfaced?_ "

 _Ah._

 _Wait, what?_

Starscream was hurrying through his sentences at Mach 3, having passed that particular blockage. "Why did you blackmail me? I have been loyal – I have finished all the tasks and our recent raids were a great success! What did I do to upset you?"

He was close to lamenting by the time Starscream was finished though most of them were only partially received by the gun-former. His processors were largely invested in processing the more important piece of information…which simply did not add up to what he understood or what he had been doing these past quartexes.

Yes, he did interfaced with his Second (a precious memory files which he frequently summoned to review again and again) but never, never in his active moments did he recall spreading his conquest to the rest of his soldiers. It was a delicate matter, the sort of insanity which was made possible by high-grade inebriation – which was exactly how it happened, lest he would probably not risk as much to get intimate with the psychotic mech in the first place when sober – and one that he wanted to keep out of audial-shots of other Decepticons. Besides, his eons-old cold war with his Air Commander was a famous not-secret in the Decepticon ranks. Who knew what sort of reactions it would stir if the others know that it had led to something as unexpected as them tossing on the floor of the mess hall, his chord snug in Starscream's receptive valve, listening to the Seeker's vocalizer straining to call out his name through overload –

Anyway.

The news – as Starscream had desperately pointed out – should not be a public knowledge and Megatron had not attempted anything to make it otherwise. He _certainly_ was not speculating on blackmail for some times now. "Where did you learn this?"

"Astrotrain told me, my lord. He specifically informed – _threatened_ – me in private that a Decepticon who… 'faced his leader is not fit to be a Second-In-Command." A corner of Starscream's mouth twitched uncomfortably. "Astrotrain also added that as soon as the others know about it, they will be against me and that you will have a new Second in my place. I scolded him and denied his claim, but I must know what I've done that you'll demote me!"

By 'scold', Megatron could well envision the triple-changer being conked out in a dark corner of the Nemesis by a well-placed shot from Starscream's null-rays. He knew Starscream's temper well enough, particularly so when it involved his highly coveted positions in the Decepticon. Slightly amused yet strangely sympathetic (at the very lowest degree, mind you) to his distress, Megatron announced, "You should have taken hint by the fact that it's _Astrotrain_."

"…my lord?"

Starscream directed a baffled look to the silver mech as he rose from his seat and descended the steps, his optics blazing with desperate curiousity. Megatron blithely left a servo on his right wing, an unspoken command to keep the Seeker on the floor as he was and continued, "Astrotrain is notsomeone to trust, you _know_ it. He's almost as selfish as you are –"

The brief look of angry disbelief on Starscream's faceplates was amusing but Megatron forged on unperturbed.

"– and he will attempt all tactics that his simple processors can come up with to destabilize you, make you appear as an incompetent fool in front of me when you stormed in here, and possibly raise the chances of having you ousted from your ranks – in which case there will be two vacancies that he can strive for – even if that plan is as poorly thought as threatening you with half-concocted lies."

Being a Second-In-Command and an Air Commander at the same time, Starscream was an object of many envious optics and ambitious Sparks of those who were dissatisfied that such critical positions were held by one mech. Starscream usually handled the confrontations well, likely would have done just as spectacularly with Astrotrain, if the triplechanger had not had the audacity to suggest the outrageous gossip which accidentally had the misfortune to be the truth, even if the crafter had not the slightest spark of idea about it.

Megatron gentled his grasp on the Seeker's wings and turned the touch into a massage. "Astrotrain is an ambitious, reckless glitch. If I heard that this…despicable gossip reached the others, then I _will_ dole out punishments – if only for his stupidity to include myself in it."

Though his expression had mostly been smoothed out of his anxiety, Starscream still retained the bright look of incredulity in his optics. Megatron shook his helm exasperatedly and caught the Seeker's chin-guard with the servo that had been on his wings a few astroseconds ago. The subtlest tug was enough to give a hint to the Seeker who frantically rose to his pedes. Starscream's obedience earned him a pleased grin from the tyrant.

"At the very least, I would have come up with a better story if I decide for the extortion route," Megatron finished with a smirk, the sharp tip of a canine showing subtly through the lopsided twist of his mouth.

If Starscream had flinched or made the slightest motion of denial, Megatron would have backed off and dismissed the Seeker, their little conversation forgotten and buried while Starscream was free to abuse Astrotrain for the scare once he was online. As it was, Starscream remained still, his optics fixated fearlessly – even hopefully – on Megatron's visage. The gun-former took that as a positive and bowed a little to compensate the jet-former's lesser height; caught the dark grey lip-components between his own denta gently. Starscream gave an instinctive flinch but regained himself in the next nanoklik, tilting his helm to the side and fitted his mouth over Megatron's with the practised ease of an experienced kisser.

As soon as they committed themselves, Megatron activated his scanner and widened the search perimeter to the maximum radius – and felt Starscream doing the same, sweeping the area for possible lurker which would be given valid news to spread throughout the Nemesis. They found no presences other than themselves and continued with renewed confidence. Without thinking, Megatron had already wound an arm-strut around the Seeker's slender mid-riff in a possessive hold while Starscream's servos, trapped in the narrow gap between their chasses, grasped at the frontal edge of the gun-former's armours to keep them close together. For being a robotic life-form, Starscream felt impossibly soft that Megatron distinctly feared breaking his hide with mere grazing from his sharp denta – which would have roused suspicion among those who would notice the mark – and refrained himself from acting with more aggression than was advisable.

A belated realization pierced through the cloud of pleasure in his logic circuits: Megatron had left his Fusion Cannon unattached.

 _Slag,_ he thought and reflexively winced at the thought of vulnerability. Starscream was a good interface, there was no doubt about that, but there were still possibilities of him being a backstabber – but the pleading nibbles on his lip-components melted the warlord's fear.

Honestly, Starscream might as well be bipolar for all these revolving doors antics of his.

It was, by either standard, a chaste and gentle kiss. In Megatron's case, this was more so considering that his lust was usually expended on prisoners before they were stuck on this mudball of a planet. A ravenous Seeker the likes of Starscream would have found it relatively tame as well but relented to what they could scavenge in their precarious positions right now.

Especially following Astrotrain's blatant lies-which-were-actually-true.

First done in the stupid recklessness from high-grades, Megatron found his current soberness to be slightly nerve clusters-disturbing that he would actually be involved with his Second in (relative) publicity. Separating with their respective ventilation cycles running a tad higher than when they had made contact, Starscream presented himself as less of a mess than when he had entered the Command Deck. His optics shone; that slag-eating grin made a successful return, an expression of conviction that the world was his.

"Well, my lord," he said, clasping his servos together in an I-think-we-are-done-here-for-this-orn manner, "If you'll excuse me, I have a certain triple-changer to…have a dialogue with."

"Give him a Pit," Megatron said, effectively dismissing his Seeker, granting him punishment to lash his Spark out at the liar and doing it on Megatron's behalf as well.


End file.
